Rio by the sea-o

A short video report of my time in Rio de Janeiro recently.

Let's Brew - 1932 Youngs Stout

The stronger of the Black Beers was, naturally enough, Stout.

With an OG in the low 1050ºs, it fits nicely into the strongest category of beer in the last set of price controls from just after WW I. These were generally the strongest draught beers in London during the interwar period. And included most Stouts.

As you’ve probably guessed, this was parti-gyled with Porter. All the London brewers did that. The quantities of Porter being brewed by this point didn’t merit being single-gyle.

The presence of oats convinces me that there was a bottled version. Oatmeal Stout wasn’t usually a draught beer. Even though, in many cases, draught Stout also contained oats. Brewers just didn’t tell anyone.

Pretty sure this wasn’t aged to any great degree. Maybe a few weeks in trade casks.  

1932 Youngs Stout
mild malt	6.00 lb	53.55%
black malt	1.00 lb	8.92%
amber malt	1.125 lb	10.04%
crystal malt 60 L	0.75 lb	6.69%
flaked oats	1.00 lb	8.92%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.625 lb	5.58%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.625 lb	5.58%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.08 lb	0.71%
Fuggles 120 min	2.00 oz
Fuggles 30 min	2.00 oz
OG	1052
FG	1016
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	69.23%
IBU	46
SRM	39
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Learn more about brewing at Youngs from former brewer John Hatch. 

1960s Hydroautomatic Brewhouse (Steinecker)

Even more DDR fun. Sort of. The source is from the DDR, at least.

This time with a more high-tech brewhouse. A two-vessel system. Which, if you paid attention to my post on a four-vessel brewhouse, meant that meant the vessels had dual functions. With the mash tun doubling as lauter tun and the mash kettle doubling up as the wort kettle. As in the system illustrated here.*

It's automatic. Or at least, that's what's claimed. With a brewer only needed to keep an eye on it. Sounds dead groovy. Like the decade that spawned it.

As this was a system developed by a firm, Steinecker of Freising, Bavaria, I doubt very much one was ever installed in the DDR. It would have cost way too much hard currency. Unless the Czechs produced a knock-off back in the communist days. (Or the Good Old Days, as I call them. Much to the annoyance of Dolores.)

Hydroautomatic Brewhouse (Steinecker)

(1) Malt Steeping Vessel
(2) Twin-Roll Mill for Wet Milling
(3) Mash and Lauter Tun
(4) Mash and Wort Kettle
(5) Hop Filter
(0) Control Panel
(7) Sight Window with Liquid Level Indicator
(8) Cutting Unit
(9) Propeller
(10) Hop Feeding Device
(11) Exhaust with Fan
"Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 265.

* "Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 264. 

Four-vessel DDR brewhouse

More DDR fun today. I've accumulated so much material on DDR brewing that maybe I sould assemble it into a book. Like "DDR! volume two". Except who would be interested in a book about a country that no longer exists. Let me know if you would. If there's enough interest, I might nail it together.

Back to the topic of the day. A four-vessel brewhouse. In the DDR. Though, if you look closely, it couldn't be a West German system. As there's a second mash tun. One specifically for a cereal mash of unmalted grains. Which obviously wouldn't apply in Reinheitsgebot-land. Where you would only need three vessels.

I suppose that the extra mash vessels must have been installed after WW II. As the use of unmalted grains wouldn't have been allowed before then. I imagine that, in most cases, the other three vessels were already installed and continued to be used.

The four vessels were:

a mash tun, which was unheated
a mash kettle for boiling the partial mash
a lauter tun
a wort pan for boiling the whole mash*

A simpler, two-vessel system was also in use. Here, one vessel functioned as both mash tun and lauter tun and the other as mash kettle and wort kettle.** Which is more like the set up in a traditional UK brewhouse, though used in a different way.

Looking at the Helles Vollbier mashing scheme I published a few days ago, it's clear that some breweries had a two- or three-vessel brewhouse. In that scheme, the cereal mash was performed in the kettle rather than a dedicated mash kettle. I imagine that situation was more common than the system illustrated here. 

(1) mash kettle I    (4) wort kettle    (7) hop montejus    (10) discharge pump
(2) mash kettle II    (5) malt mill    (8) agitator drive
(3) lauter tun    (6) adjunct mill    (9) mash pump


* "Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 260.
** "Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 260. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1932 Youngs Porter

Time now for the Black Beers. Of which there are two. We’ll kick off with the weaker one, Porter.

It’s as watery as you would expect of an interwar Porter. Not quite 3% ABV. Quite a change from the 5% ABV version brewed before WW I. No wonder its popularity plunged into a death spiral.

With four malts, one adjunct and two sugars, it’s a pretty complicated grist. Well, it could be five malts, as it’s not totally clear what form the oats were. I’ve just guessed flaked rather than malted. Feel free to use malted oats if you prefer.

Interesting that brown malt isn’t amongst all those malts. It had been a standard ingredient in Porter since, well, the beginning of the style two centuries earlier.  Though there is some amber malt. Presumably for flavour, mostly. With most of the colour coming from the black malt and the sugar.

Speaking of sugar, there were equal quantities of No.3 invert and DM (dextro-maltose). For the latter I’ve substituted No. 2 invert. As well as a small amount of caramel as primings.

The two types of hops were both from Kent and the 1930 harvest. One had been cold stored.

Obviously, no ageing for a beer this piss-weak. 

1932 Youngs Porter
mild malt	4.00 lb	58.82%
black malt	0.50 lb	7.35%
amber malt	0.75 lb	11.03%
crystal malt 60 L	0.25 lb	3.68%
flaked oats	0.50 lb	7.35%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.375 lb	5.51%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.375 lb	5.51%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.05 lb	0.74%
Fuggles 120 min	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.25 oz
OG	1032
FG	1010
ABV	2.91
Apparent attenuation	68.75%
IBU	34
SRM	25
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Learn more about brewing at Youngs from former brewer John Hatch. 

How to brew Doppelkaramelmalzbier

Doppelkaramelmalzbier is such a weird beer. a Vollbier - 12º Plato - but only around 1% ABV. Barely hopped and incredibly sweet. How did they brew a beer like that?

Luckily, Kunze's "Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" has a pretty detailed description. 

The initial brew was the same as for ordinary Malzbier. 

6.1.2. Special Features in the Production of Doppelkaramelmalzbier and Malzbier
In most breweries, both beers are produced using the same process up to the lagering cellar.

Both beers are 6% Plato dark beers; in the case of Doppelkaramelmalzbier, the extract difference of up to 12% is later achieved by adding sugar.

The grist contains 3–6% Farbmalz and often another 6–8% Karamelmalz. Part of the colour is always achieved by adding caramel colouring (see p. 92). The hop addition is minimal (see TGL) and serves only to round out the flavour. 
"Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 451.

Around 6º Plato of gravity came from sugar. Making sugar, effectively, 50% of the grist. Which is ridiculously high. Especially as it wasn't really fermented at all.

Several methods were used.

There are several ways to achieve the desired wort concentration:

The wort is drawn off at approximately 6% Plato; reducing the grist size decreases the brewhouse capacity in fully utilized brewhouses. A blind plate must be used in the mash filter.

With a normal grist size, the wort is drawn off at approximately 6% Plato; However, significantly more wort needs to be drawn off to achieve 6% Plato in the wort. This amount exceeds the kettle's capacity, and some breweries boil the additional quantity in the mash tun. This, however, ties up the brewing equipment for longer and results in unnecessary water boiling.

The wort is drawn off at 9-10% Plato, as far as the kettle's capacity allows. During racking, it is then blended with water to approximately 6% Plato (converted to pitching wort).

Advantages: Time savings in the brewhouse, fewer vessels in the fermentation cellar, and energy savings, as the blending water is not boiled. 
"Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 451. 

A sort of high-gravity brewing, then, the last method. though 9-10º Plato isn't exactly a very high gravity.

For Doppelkaramelmalzbier, the finished beverage, based on an 11.7 to 12.2% Plato pitching wort, must contain 6 kg (Figure 259) of sugar per 1 hl of retail beer. This sugar is added in a concentrated aqueous solution as sugar syrup before bottling. Since the syrup water dilutes the beer, the double caramel malt beer is blended slightly stronger beforehand (7-8% Plato). The 7-8% Plato beer is mixed with the syrup by repeatedly transferring it between pressure tanks. At the same time, several liters of thick yeast slurry are usually added to initiate a second fermentation, which is intended to generate a higher carbon dioxide pressure in the Doppelkaramelmalzbier.

Doppelkaramelmalzbier is not filtered, but pasteurized.

The added sugar introduces a significant amount of fermentable extract into the Doppelkaramelmalzbier. If the existing and added yeast were able to ferment this extract, all the bottles would burst due to the ever-increasing carbon dioxide pressure. 
"Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 451.

The sugar was added after primary fermentation. However, by the addition of yeast as well, ther was a short secondary fermentation, which was designed to increase the CO2 content.

But that fermentation had to be stopped, given the massive content of unfermented sugar. Hence the pasteurisation. A bit strange that it wasn't filtered, though.

However, slightly higher pressure produces a more appealing head (see p. 434). To generate this increased pressure, the temperature is raised to 30–35°C for approximately 2–4 hours at the beginning of pasteurization. Then, the temperature is increased to about 65°C, thereby killing the yeast cells and preventing further fermentation and carbon dioxide production.
"Technologie Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 452. 

All in all, pretty weird.  Doppelkaramel does still exist. But does anyone still brew it this way?

Chapman 14th October 1880 AK mashing scheme

We’ll finish with a look at the mashing scheme.

It’s a rather complicated one. With no fewer than seven operations.

Things kick off with an infusion. Followed by an underlet. All pretty standard stuff. Then there’s something simply described as “O” in the brewing record. My guess is that it means “overlet”. That is, adding hot water to the top of the mash, rather than the bottom, as in an underlet.

There’s then the first sparge, which is followed by a second mash. Which is somewhat warmer than the first. Though the strike heat is lower. The process ended with more sparging.

As there are no column headers for the mashing details, it’s impossible to know whether the rightmost temperatures are initial heats or tap heats. I’m inclined to believe the latter. For all, except the initial infusion mash.

Chapman 14th October 1880 AK mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	initial heat	tap heat
mash 1	10	168º F	143º F
underlet	1	173º F
overlet	1	173º F
sparge 1	9	176º F		150.5º F
mash 2	3	160º F		150º F
sparge 2	4.5	164º F		158.5º F
sparge 3	4.5	161º F		160º F
Source:
Chapman brewing record.

 

 

Chapman boiling and fermentation in 1880

Moving on to processes.

Starting with boiling. Not that there’s anything very odd about it. For most beers, the first copper was boiled for 90 minutes and the second for 120 minutes. Times which aren’t anything out of the ordinary.

As none of the beers is super strong, it makes sense that there were no extremely long boils. The longest, for the second copper of Stout, was 160 minutes. I wonder if that was to try and darken the weaker wort a little. A dark colour being a bit of a requirement for a Stout.

Pitching times are a little on the low side. All of them, including for the weakest beers, are under 60º F.

The highest temperatures were generally 10º F to 12º F above the pitching temperature. So, generally a bit under 70º F. A pretty standard range of temperatures and pretty dull, really.

I can see from the brewing records that attemperators were used to control the temperature of the fermentation. The attemperators were generally switched on about two days into the fermentation and switched off about two days later.

Here’s a full fermentation record:

It’s interesting that the attemperators were switched off just before the wort hit its maximum temperature. 

Chapman boiling and fermentation in 1880
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
X	Mild	1.5	2	58.5º F	69.25º F	8
XX	Mild	1.5	2	57º F	67.75º F	8
XXX	Stock Ale	1.5	2	57º F	66.5º F	8
AK	Pale Ale	2.5		58º F	69.25º F
PA	Pale Ale	1.5	2	57º F	68.5º F	5
S	Stout	1.5	2.67	58.5º F	69.5º F	7
Source:
Chapman brewing record.

Chapman 5th Oct 1880 XX fermentation
time (hours)	gravity	temperature
0	1067.9	57º F
13		59.5º F
23.5	1063.7	61.5º F
25	attenuators on
37	1054.8	63.75º F
47.5	1046.0	64.75º F
61	1032.4	66º F
72	1025.2	67º F
76	attenuators off
100	1020.5	67.75º F
107.25	1019.1	67.75º F
157	1015.2
	racked
Source:
Chapman brewing record.

 

 

Let's Brew - 1932 Youngs XXXX Ale

Just like Fullers with Old Burton Extra, Youngs also had a stronger Burton Ale. Something called XXXX Ale. Though it probably wasn’t called that down the pub.

It doesn’t seem to have been brewed very often. And was parti-gyled with XXX. I’m guessing that it was a winter seasonal beer.

Nothing to say about the recipe. This having been parti-gyled with the XXX Ale above.

Now here’s the big question: was this a genuinely Old Ale? Well, the only example I have was brewed in early November. If it was a winter beer, that means it was either consumed withing a couple of months, or aged for a full twelve months. 

1932 Youngs XXXX Ale
mild malt	13.00 lb	79.46%
crystal malt 60 L	1.250 lb	7.64%
No. 3 invert sugar	2.00 lb	12.22%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.11 lb	0.67%
Fuggles 120 min	2.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	2.75 oz
OG	1079
FG	1029.5
ABV	6.55
Apparent attenuation	62.66%
IBU	53
SRM	23
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

Learn more about brewing at Youngs from former brewer John Hatch. 

Drinking habits

 For years, I drank a few bottles of St Bernardus Abt every day. It sort of defined me.

Not any more.

This year, I've drunk pretty much no beer at home. Why? A change in habits.

These last 12 months have presented a few challenges health-wise. Starting with my broken arm in Salvador.

Feeling a bit fucked, and in quite a bit of pain, I knocked off drinking for a while. Until it became a new habit.

I don't drink beer at home any more. I bought 11 Abts in December 2024 for Christmas. I drank the last one on 5th July 2025. Why the big change?

Habit. I realise much of my drinking over the years has been about habits. Those four or five Abts every night? A habit. Once illness broke that routine. Well, I didn't feel the need to do it any more. 

It's probably for the best. Even though I do still love Abt. I just don't want it to take over my life.

1970s Pilsator decoction mash

As you read this, I should be sipping a beer in a bar in Copacabana. Flash bastard that I am. Far away from the freezing cold of Amsterdam. 

More fun from behind the iron curtain. In the form of another decoction scheme.

It's been a while since I went on a decoction mash binge. Such a fascinating subject. Who would have guessed that there were so many different methods? And this is another new one to me.

The source is a brewing record image for a Pilsator. I can't remember where I got it, nor which brewery it is. Dead interesting, thougfh.
It's a type of single deoction. But with a twist.

It's mashed in at 50º C, then has rests at 64º C and 74º C. Weirdly, it's cooled back down to 64º C. Thn warmed back up to 76º C. Only then was the wort boiled. But only for ten minutes. Which seems pretty short. It can't have been very much wort that was boiled, as it only raised the temperature of the mash by 2º C.

What's odd about this method? Usually any boils are earlier in the process. And are used to raise the temperature of the mash considerably. For example, from 50º C to 64º C.

1973 DDR Pilsator mashing scheme
operation	time
	start	end	temp. º C	hl
3,500 kg pilsner malt mashed in	06:20	06:40	56	120
drain 1st mash	06:55	07:05		110
raise to 64º C	07:00	07:15
saccharification rest	07:15	07:45	64
raise to 74º C	07:45	07:55
rest 20 min	07:55	08:15	74
move to mash tun	08:15	08:25
cool to 64º C	08:25	08:35	64	140
drain 2nd mash	08:35	08:40		60
saccharification rest	08:40	08:55	76
raise to boil	08:55	09:25
boil	09:25	09:35
move to mash tun	09:35	09:45
saccharification rest	09:45	10:00	76
mash out in lauter tun	10:00	10:25
Source:
a random DDR brewing record I have

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1990 Youngs Special London Ale

Strongest of the Pale Ales, simply called “Exp” in the brewhouse, was sold as Special London Ale. Which was a bottle-conditioned beer.

Despite being parti-gyled with PA, the recipe was a bit different from the other Pale Ales. Specifically, this grist lacked torrefied barley. Not sure why that might be. It’s an ingredient that was usually included to improve head retention. Maybe they thought a bottled beer didn’t need that help.

Otherwise, the recipe is much thew same. Other than that, there are only two types of English hops, rather than three. Not sure what the reasoning behind that was, either.

I think this is one of the beers that is still brewed. I rather liked myself on the half dozen or so times I’ve drunk it. I particularly appreciated the high ABV, pisshead that I am.

1990 Youngs Special London Ale
pale malt	14.25 lb	93.94%
crystal malt 120 L	0.25 lb	1.65%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.67 lb	4.42%
Fuggles 60 min	4.25 oz
Goldings 10 min	0.75 oz
OG	1067
FG	1016.5
ABV	6.68
Apparent attenuation	75.37%
IBU	48
SRM	10.5
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	60 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.  

Zoigl 2012

I visit the Oberpfalz, dropping by Zoiglstube Schwoazhansl in Falkenberg, Zoiglstube beim Käck´n in Neuhaus and Schloßhof Zoigl in Windischeschenbach. With a bonus visit to not-called-Zoigl Kommunbrauer Paul Reindl in Neuhaus an der Pegnitz. From the, sadly, defunct communal brewery there.

 

DDR boiling and hop additions

More fun stuff from the example brewing record in Technologie Brauer und Mälzer. I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

Wort was generally boiled for around two hours. Which is on the long side compared to what happened in, for example, the UK. Youngs mostly boiled between 60 and 75 minutes. Another difference is that there was only a single wort and single boil in the DDR. While in the UK, other than for particularly small batches, there were usually at least two boils, often three or even four.

There were usually two or three hop additions. With these timings:

15-25%	when kettle filling
50-60%	start of boil
25%	15-30 min before end
Source:
Technologie Brauer und Mälzer by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 258.

Isn't that fascinating?

Now for a specific example. Which is of a brew of Helles Vollbier from sometime in the mid-1960s. This beer was boiled for 110 minutes.

1960s DDR Helles Vollbier hop additions (kg)
hop type	1st addition	2nd addition	3rd addition
timing	230 min	120 min	20 min
Czechoslovakian			10
Hallertau		15
DDR	10	5
hop extract 1:10	0.5
total	15	20	10
%	33.33%	44.44%	22.22%
Source:
Technologie Brauer und Mälzer by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 212.

You'll notice that the first hop addition is a bit larger and the second a bit lower than that recommended by Kunze. Though the timings are the same: first addition as the kettle starts to fill, second when the kettle is full, third 20 minutes before the end of the boil.
 

DDR Helles Vollbier decoction mash

I spent a couple of days this week writing a talk about beer in the DDR that I'll be giving in Germany next month. It's been a lot of fun.

Much of the material I already had. But there were a couple of areas I had to research a little. One being mashing. Obviously, Kunze's Technologie Brauer und Mälzer was my source. Where I came acorss something I'd previously missed. A brewing record for a Helles Vollbier.

Including just the sort of thing I love. A really detailed mashing record. It's a dual decoction. Though the first is a cereal mash doubling as a decoction. Which is fascinating. As a cereal mash with rice is how Budweiser was made during Mitch Steele's time at Anheuser Busch. You can hear him talk about it here:


Of course, Budweiser didn't get a second decoction, like this Helles did.

It's quite a long process. Six hours in all. Then they spent another four hours running off the wort and sparging. No wonder it never become popular in the UK.

DDR Helles Vollbier decoction mash
action	mash tun			mash kettle
	time	hl	º C	time	hl	º C	time taken
mash in 1,000 kg rice and 1,000 kg pilsner malt				0:00 - 0:35	55	50	35
raise to 65º C in 20 min				0:35 - 0:55	55	65	20
rest 10 min				0:55 - 1:05	55	65	10
raise to 78º C in 15 min				1:05 - 1:20	55	78	15
rest 20 min				1:20 - 1:40	55	78	20
raise to boil in 25min (adjunct mash)				1:40 - 2:05	55	100	25
boil 35 min				2:05 - 2:40	55	100	35
mash in 200 kg Munich malt and 1,800 kg pilsner malt at 50º C	1:45 - 2:00	60	50
rest 40 min	2:00 - 2:40	60	50
mix with adjunct mash	2:40 - 3:00	115	64				20
rest 35 min	3:00 - 3:35	115	64				35
pull decoction				3:35 - 3:40	50	64	5
raise to 77º C in 5min				3:40 - 3:45	50	77	5
rest 10 min				3:45 - 3:55	50	77	10
raise to boil in 15 min				3:55 - 4:10	50	100	15
boil 20 min				4:10 - 4:30	50	100	20
raise to 75º C mash out	4:30 - 4:40						10
rest 30 min	4:40 - 5:10						30
raise to 78º C	5:10 - 5:15						5
saccharification rest	5:15 - 6:00						45
						total	360
Source:
Technologie Brauer und Mälzer by Wolfgang Kunze, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 2nd edition, 1967, page 212.